1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of communications generally and, more particularly, to vehicle communication systems, program products, and associated methods.
2. Description of the Related Art
Law enforcement officers and other civil servants have long needed a cost-effective system which delivers data quickly, helps e.g., police officers save time in the performance of their duties, and accomplishes these goals without interfering with other officer duties or endangering the officer. Early officer data systems included human dispatchers in radio frequency (“RF”) communication with officers in vehicles. In these early systems, data requested by the officer was typically searched for by hand and read back to the officer over the radio and, therefore, suffered from slow delivery of data, costs associated with employing dispatchers, and a very limited database of available data.
These early systems were gradually replaced by police department computer systems, typically including a main computer in a police department headquarters or control center in communication with a police vehicle mobile data computer and at least one law enforcement database, such as the system shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,939, by Morgan et al. titled “Advanced Law Enforcement and Response Technology.” Systems of this type use a handheld input device having a magnet stripe reader for filling in forms with data held on a magnet stripe located on cards such as driver's licenses, transmitting these forms to the vehicle mobile data computer, and printing out these forms on a printer positioned in the vehicle. The magnet stripe reader for reading driver's licenses poses an additional problem because the data obtained from the magnet stripe is often out of date, especially in states where licenses need not be renewed, and hence bar codes not being updated for many years. Further, the handheld unit required by such systems prevents the officer's hands from being free for other activities and can place the officer in dangerous situations such as when the officer's attention is devoted to the handheld unit instead of the officer's surroundings.
Some systems such as the Premiere MDC system sold by Motorola Corporation of Straumberg, Ill. have a police department computer in communication with a police vehicle mobile data computer and a database of law enforcement data. These systems offer computer aided dispatching, computer generated reports to be filled out by the officer, and can transmit responses to officer requests for law enforcement data such as data associated with license plate numbers or driver's licenses. The vehicle mobile data computer software in the Premiere MDC system has a limited text-to-voice program for presenting data in audio rather than video format and is also capable of displaying maps using a global positioning system (“GPS”) unit to define the area to be displayed. The presentation of this data, however, is often poorly organized and poorly prioritized, thereby requiring the officer to spend a long time finding the desired data and distracting the officer from other work. The text-to-voice software from the Motorola system allows the officer to be somewhat more aware of the surroundings but still endangers the officer as critical data, such as whether a suspect is believed to be dangerous, may not come until the middle or end of the audio transmission.
Such systems conventionally transfer each element of written data or text-to-voice, e.g., including zip codes, extraneous information. Much of this information, however, is not needed by the officer and can be information overload for an officer. Further, because text-to-voice is typically monotone or lacking intonation, the officer must concentrate more attention on the transmission and may misunderstand portions of the transmission. Systems such as the Motorola system pose a still further problem because the officer must frequently focus attention on the computer screen while filling in forms and checking responses to queries. This substantially increases the danger to the officer as the officer cannot be aware of the surroundings at the same time.
Applicant recognized as beneficial in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/656,487 by Rubenstein titled “Apparatus for Communicating with Law Enforcement During Vehicle Travel and Associated Methods” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,621,422 by Rubenstein titled “Apparatus for Communicating with Law Enforcement During Vehicle Travel and Associated Methods,” an apparatus and software for communicating with law enforcement during vehicle travel which: prioritizes pre-recorded human voice responses to officer queries that delivers rapid, easily comprehended responses that allow the officer to maintain visual awareness of the surroundings at all times; transmits audio alarms to the officer to give the officer immediate warning of degrees of law violation associated with a suspect; and provides cost effective quick mapping of incident locations. Such apparatus and software previously have been beneficially implemented in many vehicles.
Also with recent advances in computer technology, microphone technology, and speech recognition algorithms, there has been an emergence of speech recognition software capable of providing discrete word and phrase recognition. Speech recognition software generally receives a speech signal, determines which words constitute the speech signal, and apply the determined words to an application program either in the form of a command or in the form of text. Speech recognition systems generally compare an acoustic description of text stored in a vocabulary database against an acoustic signal generated by the utterance of the text to be recognized. The speech recognition system then determines if the words or text are commands vs. dictation, applying the words or text as commands if recognized as a command.
There are numerous problems encountered in the attempt to perfect speech recognition. For example, problems can include difficulty in determining when an utterance has begun. This problem is significantly exacerbated in a high-background noise environment. Some systems use a statistically derived acoustic model of background noise to filter the incoming acoustic signal. These systems have met some success where the non-speech sounds consist mostly of background noise having a fairly constant frequency and amplitude not matching the spectral characteristics of the text stored in the vocabulary database.
Nevertheless, non-speech sounds, including background noise, are frequently detected as speech. This condition is problematic because the speech recognition systems examine a very large database of words or text, attempting to match a detected sound to each word or text. As such, speech recognition systems are likely to be falsely triggered into interpreting non-speech sounds as speech. Even if the speech recognition system is able to differentiate between the non-speech sounds and desired speech, resources of the associated computer system can be heavily taxed during such determination, thus causing a significant delay to the user. This can cause the user to lose track of what speech was provided to the speech recognition system, distracting the user, and negating the benefit of using a speech recognition system.
Various vehicles, e.g., law enforcement or other public service vehicles, present an extremely high-background noise environment from multiple sources, such as, for example, the road, the engine, the wind, the vehicle fan, and the vehicle radio and/or passengers. Due to the level of such noise, the typical voice recognition system would be overwhelmed, causing extended delays as high as 20 seconds or more attempting to match the speech to be recognized with the vocabulary database. During a critical event such as, for example, a high-speed chase, distraction caused by either having to change focus to the computer screen to verify correct data entry or determining if the system received a command provided in the officer's speech, can significantly increase the likelihood of a traffic accident. Nevertheless, attempts have been made to implement a vehicle voice recognition system. Such a system is known as “Project 54.”
Project 54, however, requires its own specialized hardware, hardware interface, and software package, which must be shipped or otherwise physically delivered to the vehicle. A vehicle electrician must then install the hardware interface and additional hardware, such as, for example, a press-to-talk switch that must be both connected to a vehicle structure and electrically interfaced with one of the ports of the vehicle computer. The vehicles mobile client software application must then be replaced with that of Project 54. The operator of the vehicle must then be trained to use the Project 54 mobile client and must memorize the voice commands utilized by the Project 54 software package.
The Applicant has recognized, however, that the various law-enforcement and other public service departments throughout the country have varying requirements, and prefer to utilize different mobile client software applications, generally having similar functionality, but controlled by different function keys. Such public service departments generally do not have the time or resources to perform vehicle modifications. Further, requiring the different departments to re-train their personnel in use of software having unfamiliar characteristics would require additional training expenditures, interrupt scheduling, and may cause operating difficulties, especially during initial implementation, which could result in an inability to receive critical information.
Also recognized by the Applicant is that Project 54, similar to the various speech recognition applications described previously, is extremely susceptible to noise signals encountered when the push-to-talk switch is engaged to allow the microphone to receive an audio signal, such as during delivery of a voice command. In such situations, the vehicle computer system resources can be heavily taxed while attempting to recognize the voice command, causing a significant delay in either recognizing the voice command or failing to do so. This can result in a severe distraction to the user. Further, the user is not provided a system ready status, and thus, may lose track of which voice command is being processed. As stated, such distractions negate the benefit of using voice recognition systems. Recognized by the Applicant is that such a system is wholly inadequate system for suppressing the effects of noise. The user must divert attention to the push-to-talk switch, provide voice commands during a relatively low-noise situation, and quickly release the switch to prevent extraneous noise from being received. Also recognized by the Applicant is that this limitation prevents the software from being operated in an entirely hands-free mode.
Thus, recognized by the Applicant is the need for a voice command interface program product or software compatible with a multitude of law-enforcement or other vehicle based mobile data systems that enables a user to utilize voice commands to operate the vehicle mobile data system, that requires little or no user training, and that has a very high accuracy under the most arduous conditions. Also recognized is that any voice command interface related system to be used for in-vehicle applications should be capable of not only enhancing the user's voice, but also eliminating background noise and minimizing the effect of other non-speech sounds.